Hmmm … I appreciate the hypotheses, but I’m not yet convinced there’s a good reason for Axiom’s subwoofer pricing structure.

It’s not the DSP. The lower three models, which include the 2 models I mentioned, don’t have that feature. Neither Axiom nor Hsu publish SPL graphs for those subs, with or without distortion information, so there’s no reason to believe one is better than the other. I’ll add that quality is the reason I used Hsu as a comparison, as they are generally considered high quality.

Local labor is a good reason. I’d be willing to pay a bit more for a product made in North America, but 50% more taxes my good will in that regard. So if that’s the reason I’d say it’s not a good one. The Axioms definitely look nicer than the default black (which Hsu uses), so there’s that.

Oh well, thanks for the feedback. I’d say I still can’t justify spending the money for an Axiom sub. It just seems so strange that the apparent cost/performance ratio for subs is a 180 from that for the other speakers.

I’m not actually in the market for a sub; the question came about as I was doing the usual window shopping and thinking "wouldn’t it be nice ..." I guess I'll have to go back to pining over the M60s.